SITXCOM010 Manage Conflict

by Harry / Thursday, 21 September 2023 / Published in Others

Table of Contents

Online Help on SITXCOM010 Practical Project

For this assessment, you are the manager of the Champion’s Sports bar. You have just arrived to work after having the weekend off, and the following email is in your inbox:

Send □	To	manager@championssportsbar.com.au;
	From	Kirsty.Fox_565645@gmail.com.au;
	Subject	Overcharged and underwhelmed
	Date	02/05/20XX
To whom it may concern A group of us had a meal in your restaurant last night at 7 pm, and I am absolutely fuming. I have just checked my receipt, and we have been overcharged for meals we never even received! I understand it was a busy night, but when we arrived, your team member Blake took our order. They did not repeat the order back to us, but they were writing everything down, so we thought that they had understood. Anyway, next minute your team member Alex comes over and says that they will be looking after our table now – a bit confusing, but whatever. After waiting over an hour, meals were brought out two at a time. We had to send one of the steaks back because we ordered the rib eye, not the porterhouse (mistakes happen, a misunderstanding, that’s fine). After an hour and 15 minutes, my meal just never turned up. I was so disappointed and angry at that stage; I told Alex not to bother bringing it out as everyone else had already nearly finished their meals. I had to get McDonald’s on the way home ☹ When I checked the receipt when I got home, to my surprise, I had been charged for the chicken parmigiana anyway! So not only was the service slow, and there was a communication error with the steak, but getting charged for a meal I never ate was just the final straw. We love coming to Champion’s Sports Bar for all of our birthday dinners, but unless this is investigated further and these issues are resolved, we won’t be coming back. I honestly feel like writing a terrible review on Facebook, but I will give you an opportunity to fix this first. Regards, Kirsty Fox

Task 1 – Responding to the customer complaint

In accordance with the Champion Sports Bar Customer Service and Complaints policy, you must take swift action to de-escalate the situation. You have arranged a meeting tomorrow morning with Blake and Alex to get to investigate these issues further. In the meantime, you must respond to the customer’s email to acknowledge their concerns and explain that you will investigate the issue further and will be in touch with a solution. To do this, follow the steps below.

Step 1 – review policies and procedures

Access and review the Marino Enterprises Handbook and familiarise yourself with all policies and procedures that relate to complaints, conflicts, and disputes; so that you understand what you must do to handle this situation in accordance with organisational requirements.

Step 2 – send email

Write an email to your assessor (playing the role of the customer) in Moodle and include:

acknowledgement of their email
a paraphrase of the situation from the customers’ point of view
a clear statement explaining you will investigate the matter further
other information you deem appropriate

When sending an email – follow the instructions in ‘How to send emails from Moodle – Student’

Include the unit number (SITXCOM010) in your subject line

Complete your email draft in this template. Copy and paste content from here into your email in Moodle to send.

Before you send your email, check you have used effective communication, the correct greeting, and have met all the criteria listed above.

Send your email to your assessor in Moodle.
After sending your email, take a screenshot of the sent email and paste it below.

Task 2 – Staff meeting

Today you will be meeting with Alex and Blake to further investigate the customer complaint. After you emailed them to request the meeting, you received the following emails from each of them:

Send □	To	manager@championssportsbar.com.au;
	From	Blake.Monty@championssportsbar.com.au;
	Subject	Re: Staff meeting

Good morning I thought that customer might have complained. I served the table and took the orders, but it was so busy. When another smaller group came in, Alex (who was in a mood) told me to serve the new table and they would finish off mine. I know we usually look after our own table from start to finish, but Alex seemed angry, so I just did what they said. I know I am new to Champions Sports Bar, so I hope I don’t get in trouble for this as I just did what I was told. To be honest, I hate the way Alex speaks to me, so I think it will be good to discuss further. Thanks Blake Monty
Send □	To	manager@championssportsbar.com.au;
	From	Alex.Smith@championssportsbar.com.au
	Subject	Re: Staff meeting

Hello I am not surprised the customer complained. Blake is so incompetent and completely stuffed up their order – I mean, who confuses porterhouse and rib eye? I was the one who had to go to the kitchen and break the news to the chef, who was already stressed. I tried my best to make the customer happy, but the damage was already done by Blakes’s stupid mistake. Blake can’t seem to do more than one thing at a time, so I think it is good we are talking about it. Blake needs to understand that if they don’t get faster at what they’re doing, it is a problem. I am so sick of picking up the slack for other staff members and essentially doing two jobs at once. It is not fair. Cheers Alex Smith

Based on the emails, you now have a bit of an understanding of each staff member’s point of view. As you can identify, you will now not only be dealing with the details of the customer complaint, but there are clear conflicts between the two staff members.

To manage this effectively, you will need to discuss:

the customer complaint explaining the impact, and ensure both staff members have an opportunity to explain their perspectives, allowing for the causes of conflict to be identified
options for resolving the customer complaint, including what improvements can be made in future and a reinforcement of the staff members’ responsibilities with regard to customer service and complaint handling
other issues that are occurring between the staff members and generate solutions

During the meeting, you will need to demonstrate effective conflict management and communication techniques. You must ensure you do not disclose what each staff member has said to you, as this would likely escalate the intra-group conflict further. You will also need to take detailed notes for further reporting purposes in Task 3 and for a reflective practice task in Task 4.

Your assessor will observe your staff meeting and will assess your conflict management skills using the observation checklist. Review the observation checklist before completing your role play to ensure you understand what your assessor will be looking for. Details of your roleplay are as follows:

Task 3 – Update the customer and complete records

Now that the meeting has occurred and you have a better understanding of the causes and solutions, you must now update the customer and record details on the customer complaint register. To do this, follow the steps below.

Step 1 – send email

Write an email to your assessor (playing the role of the customer) in Moodle and include:

a summary of your investigation, ensuring you are professional, courteous, and only provide relevant information
a clear statement acknowledging the issues and an apology
your proposed solutions to rectify the situation
a request for their feedback on your solutions
other information you deem appropriate.

When sending an email – follow the instructions in ‘How to send emails from Moodle – Student’

Include the unit number (SITXCOM010) in your subject line

Before you send your email, check you have used effective communication, the correct greeting, and have met all the criteria listed above.

Send your email to your assessor in Moodle.
After sending your email, take a screenshot of the sent email and paste it below.

Step 2 – update complaint log

The customer has accepted your proposed solutions and is satisfied with the result. A copy of their response is below:

Send □	To	manager@championssportsbar.com.au;
	From	Kirsty.Fox_565645@gmail.com.au;
	Subject	Overcharged and underwhelmed
	Date	04/05/20XX
Good morning I appreciate you getting back to me so quickly. I have checked my bank account, and the money has been refunded – thankyou. Yes, I think additional staff training is very much needed, and I also think you should probably roster a couple more wait staff on busy days. I really do love coming to the restaurant, so I will happily use my voucher next visit. Let’s hope I receive 5-star service next time I am in. Thanks again. Kind regards, Kirsty Fox

Open the SITXCOM010_AT2_Q3_Complaint log provided in the supporting resources folder. Update the log with the details of the customer complaint and the outcomes agreed to. Save the updated complaint log and make a copy. Name it SITXCOM010_[Your Name] Q3_ Complaint log submission1 (if your first attempt, submission2 if your second etc.).

Step 3 – upload complaint log

Task 4 – Reflection

To continue developing your conflict management and communication skills, it is important to take time to reflect on how you dealt with the conflict. Take some time to reflect on how the customer complaint and intra-group conflict were managed.

Document your reflection by opening the SITXCOM010_AT2_Q4_Reflection template provided in the supporting resources folder. Complete each section of the document. Save your reflection and Name it SITXCOM010_[Your Name] Q4_ Reflection submission1 (if your first attempt, submission2 if your second etc.).

Once you have completed your reflection, upload the document into Moodle under the appropriate submission link for this task.

Task 5 – Friday night shift

In this roleplay, you are the duty manager for the Friday night shift. You have the following number of team members working:

X4 bar staff
X5 wait staff
X1 security guard

It is 7.30 pm on the 6^th of May, and you hear a commotion in the smoking area, and you walk outside to see what is going on. Your assessor will observe your conflict management skills using the observation checklist. Review the observation checklist before completing your role play to ensure you understand what your assessor will be looking for. Details of your roleplay are as follows:

Now the conflict situation has been handled, record the details in an incident report. To do this, complete the step below.

Step 3 – incident report

Document details of the incident by completing each section of the below template.

Task 6 – Provide suggestions

You have received the following email from your manager:

Send □	To	manager@championssportsbar.com.au;
	From	generalmanager@championssportsbar.com.au;
	Subject	Checking in
	Date	09/05/20XX
Good morning I have just seen the incident report and am checking to see if you are ok. I can see that you handled it correctly, but it is still not an ideal situation. What do you think caused the issue, and can you suggest any solutions to help prevent incidents like that from occurring again? We also need to consider the legal liability of conflicts like this getting out of hand. Cheers Hannah Jones

As requested, you must reflect on the incident that occurred and provide an update to your manager. To do this, complete the following steps:

Step 1

Write an email to your assessor (playing the role of your manager) in Moodle and include:

a summary of the incident
a summary of the potential causes
a minimum of three (3) recommendations to prevent future incidents and enhance workplace practices
a summary of the legal liability relating to intoxicated customers
other information you deem appropriate.

When sending an email – follow the instructions in ‘How to send emails from Moodle – Student’

Include the unit number (SITXCOM010) in your subject line

Complete your email draft in this template. Copy and paste content from here into your email in Moodle to send.

Before you send your email, check you have used effective communication, the correct greeting, and have met all the criteria listed above.